Banana cake

bananacake

Originally uploaded by mosli

Oh no! My bananas are over-ripe, time to make… banana bread? again? nah… Everytime I get bananas, i get too many. Now, that’s not a bad thing, because they make perfect fodder for banana bread, muffins, pancakes, etc. But last night I found myself staring at my bananas, feeling bored with the usual old banana options. I do love banana bread, but sometimes you just need to shake up the routine a little bit. Enter banana cake!

Now, I ‘m not a big cake fan.  For birthdays, I usually get pie or an icecream sundae.  This particuar cake however has a texture somewhere between carrot cake and banana bread, so its nice and moist, and with the creamcheese frosting its a fantastic comforting desert.  My directions below are using a food processor (because I don’t have a mixer), but you can easily adapt it for whatever equiptment you may or may not have.

 

Banana Cake

• 3 over ripes bananas
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 stick butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350F. In food processor cream bananas, milk, vanilla, and baking soda, and pour in large mixing bowl.  Cream butter, eggs, and sugar, then add to banana mixture, stirring well.  Add flour, salt and baking powder. Grease and flour oblong baking pan, and bake for 30 minutes.  Frost when cool.

Cream Cheese frosting

• 1 8oz block cream cheese
• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 cups cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla

Cream all ingredients in food processor.  (Isn’t frosting easy to make?)

Pineapple Kuchen

pineapplekuchen

Originally uploaded by mosli

 

Kuchen is German for cake. Simple translation, no? My grandmother used to make rhubarb kuchen every summer. She had a large rhubarb plant in her back yard, and its regular place at picnics was always welcome. Unfortunately for me, rhubarb is the one thing i’m allergic to, no matter how much i like it. So here I adapted grandma’s basic kuchen recipe to match a new fruit, pineapple!

Pineapple is something I love with a passion. I can eat fresh pineapple until the citric acid burns my tastebuds. I also love it cut in slices and grilled for a sweet and smokey desert. So when I found out that Waiter there’s something in my… challenge 18 was pineapple, I jumped at the chance to use it.  It was a bit of an experiment making kuchen with pineapple, but the tastes matched extreemely well, and i’m definately going to be makeing it again.

 

Pineapple Kuchen

• 1/2 fresh pineapple, cut in thin chunks
• 1  1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 2tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix 1 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, 2 tsp sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup cold butter into mix until pea size (I used a food processor). mix in egg and milk, then pat batter into a 9×13″ greased glass baking dish. Cover with a tight layer of pineapple. Mix 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, and cinnamon. Dot the pineapple with butter, then cover with a layer of sugar mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or unitl golden.

 

Update:  the final round-up for this “Waiter” challenge can be found here.